January 26, 2021:
At the end of 2020 the U.S. Air Force successfully tested Artu, a new software system for managing sensors on a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft that acts like the “weapons officer” or GIB (Guy In the Back) that became common during the 1960s to handle sensors and weapons system while the pilot concentrated on flying the plane. Over the decades the software available to the GIB, or just the pilot in single seat aircraft like the F-117, became more capable and able to operate without much human intervention at all.
The term Artu is a play on R2D2, the Star Wars “astromech” droid whose main purpose was to serve as a copilot on single-seat fighters. Artu was touted as taking control of the aircraft sensors and making decisions on which sensors to use for which task. This could be mainly seeking out enemy air defense sensors to be attacked by other aircraft or defensively to detect threats to the aircraft. These are life-or-death decisions being entrusted to an AI (artificial intelligence). What most people outside the flying community don’t understand is that Artu is evolutionary, not revolutionary.